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Sunday, June 29, 2008

I took a jewelry soldering class yesterday. It was a lot of fun, but I was surprised at how much equipment was needed just to produce something. The tools used were easy to get, everyday tools (hammers, pliers etc) but there were 3 different solutions needed and a tumbling machine. it would be fun, but a bit of an investment. I'll stick with my beading until I have more time to dedicate to soldering.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

raining all over the world. WHEN WILL IT STOP RAINING ! One of my favorite things is having breakfast and coffee on my patio while reading a book on my days off. fooey, another rainy morning today.There is one good thing with this rainy weather - I don't mind going shopping when it's raining since we can't be outside on our bikes.

I'm searching for a new phone now. WOW there are a LOT of phones out there to choose from. After 8, yes eight hours of phone shopping (it's a big chunk of money spent every month-not to be taken lightly), I finally decided on Verizon for my phone company and the Samsung Glyde for my phone. I'm picking the lowest plan they offer, I don't need that much, with the low text messaging plan to keep costs down. It's very easy to get the monthly cost out of control but I know what my phone usage is so I didn't need super time limits. I'm going to go pick it up today.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

It's Alphabet Wednesday at Mrs. Nesbitt's place . The letter for this week is 'W' and last week I had my fill of 'W's. My daughter and I ran around for a week while she was in town trying to plan her Wedding. there is a Wedding reception hall, a Wedding DJ, Wedding flowers, Wedding photographer, Wedding ceremony and for my Alphabet photo's I give you ....

WEDDING DRESSES

She tried on so many, we had a blast trying frilly to silly and ended up finding one that was JUST RIGHT. here are a couple of the fun ones - I can't show you the final selection, that's a secret for now.

This one I call the CupCake Frosting look. This one I call the Barbie Doll look. This one is just all wrong on her.

It rained again all day Saturday and Sunday ! It finally stopped just as the sun was starting to set and we were treated by the prettiest double rainbow. Only one of them shows up in this photo, but there were two! The flowers are beat up pretty bad by the hail. My herbs and veggies don't look bad though.Now that we're back to work the weather is sunny, warm and beautiful. huh.Wonder what the odds are that we'll get rain by the weekend again. Oh well, we're still enjoying the evenings after work. Just got back from a 3 mile walk - yes walk. G just didn't feel like suiting up for a bike ride after a long day at the office.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Finally, the weather cooperated for a bit yesterday so we could finally get on our bikes. I'm glad we went when we did, about an hour after we got home, a storm rolled in - with hail. those icey pellets would have hurt while riding a bike.

I wonder what hail would sound like hitting my helmet.

My legs got a workout but I wasn't sore when I got up. Hopefully it will warm up again today. We got over 1" of rain yesterday so I hope the sun comes out and dries up all the rain :) The bike path gets a little slippery when wet.

My daughter has gone back home to Phoenix - all is quiet here at the homestead again. I hope the wedding plans go smoothly from here on in. It was a lot of fun, if I leave out the actual ceremony piece - which really isn't my worry anyway. That's up to the bride and groom.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

My daughter has decided to let the groom have his way. Nothing I can do, it's not my life, not my choice. I hope the marriage ends up happier than the planning.It will not be an outside wedding. I told her she will be just as beautiful as a bride could be anyway. This will put a lot of pressure on the groom to be to make all the church plans, including organist, flowers and limo. I hope he's up to it. Enough - I can't stand to wallow on the negative. It's depressing.

We've found a photographer we like. one more item checked on the list.

Next is cake - the fun part - cake tasting. not a hardship for me there. :)

The plan : we'll pick 3 favorite places, purchase cake slices from each one. Then place them on plates marked on the bottom with where they came from. and pick the one we think tastes best. sort of like a blind taste test for the best flavor. Then the reception cite offers tastings of all their entree selections each week. I'll have to try one or five of those. :)

One more florist to do too.

phew. I'm going to need a vacation when all this running around is over. and a new diet after all the cake tasting. I'll have 10 months to get in shape before I need to try on Mother of the Bride dresses. That's plenty of time.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The wedding planning started out soooo fun, but it's not fun anymore.The groom is sucking the fun out of this. He won't do a thing without his parents permission.My daughter wants an outdoor wedding and his parents want a priest to marry them. Apparently you can't have both in our area. My daughter suggested they meet with the priest in the morning for a blessing and get married in the afternoon. The groom said if they meet with the priest in the morning they could not do vows in the afternoon. He was against it. He's an idiot. there.... I said it. I haven't said it to my daughter. I'm letting her figure that out on her own.

Last night he said his parents would fly out to AZ where they live, go to a church with them to be married then they could come back next summer for the reception. of course, I stopped being nice at that time. I finally let the 4 letter words fly. how DARE THEY.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers out there. At some point Most of you had to go through a wedding process. I HOPE your mother didn't give your Bride as much grief as my daughter is getting planning her wedding.

For those Mothers of the Groom out there - it IS the BRIDES day - voice an opinion if you must - then walk away. The choices, the decisions do NOT belong to the Mother of the Groom. The Mother of the Bride gets to help her daughter - not you. Let the bride have her fun - you did - maybe.

Phew. what a week! My daughter came to visit on Thursday and we've been non-stop wedding plan/shopping for two days. It feels like 10 days.

We have managed to find the perfect dress for her. There were a lot of styles she didn't like so it was easy to sift through the hundreds we looked at.

We have the hall - it has a beautiful park-like setting for an outdoor wedding, even with a small bridge for photographs afterwards. Lots of trees and umbrella covered tables for guests. The reception room is big enough for 150 but set up smartly to remain cozy and comfortable. After looking at many, she fell in love with this one right away. It just fit her style.

We looked at cake styles and she knows what she would like, but we have one more bakery that she wants to visit - that's Monday's child.

We looked at flowers and still have 2 more florists to visit - maybe today.Also today, we going to look at colors (for bridesmade dresses)- what's current now will hopefully be available next spring. we'll walk the mall and the fabric store to see what color she absolutely loves - so she can pick out flowers that won't clash.

and OMG ! I can't believe how expensive photographers are!! Holy shit. they are asking a ransom. We have a couple names we're going to call - another Monday child.

We're checking on DJ's today. I'm waiting for the price-tag shock on that too.

We've done a lot but only touched the tip of the iceburg - I know.The worst of it is her INLAWs-to-be are already causing so much un-necessary grief. Whatever the bride chooses should not be a decision factor for them. Except that it boils down to religion. And they are so devout they can't even show up if the ceremony is not in the religion of their choice. They don't even like the date of 6/27/09. Too much summer activity going on with their family to have to stop for this one day. WHAT is that all about !!??!! It's one weekend - they need to get over it.

My daughter told her grandmother (her dad's mother) all her woes and her grandmother said this is her chance to walk away. (good incite - I had to laugh when I heard it.) Her grandmother said unless her fiance starts taking her side - the marraige won't be any different. My daughter has had this thought once before and called off the wedding once already- for basically the same reason - his controlling parents - and doesn't want to be the run-away bride just because of the inlaws. I feel so bad for her - but it's still too early for me to get involved in that mess.

Oh Well, we are making the best of it - and trying to have a jolly time of shopping and doing bride things. this is her time to be having fun - not trying to make someone else happy.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

June 11 and we finally made it out for our first bike ride of the year. I think this is the latest we've started yet. G has been sick and the weather to cool up until last week so we held off. Tonight we rode our bikes up the library. It was wonderful, but we took it slow - I'd hate to pull a tight muscle on the first ride. I forgot my camera so I couldn't even photograph the inaugural ride of the year. oh well, next time.

Here we are at the Moosehead Hook and Ladder Restaurant, recently opened in our town. The weather was so cool before that the patio had not been opened. So when we requested to eat on the patio one beautiful evening, the hostess told us we were THE VERY FIRST to eat on their patio. woohoo - no free drinks though. too bad.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

My Etsy shop is finally up and running. If you look down the sidebar on the right you can see a few items I have on display there and they link to my little shop. This is so exciting and fun.

I'm slowly adding items to it but it's exciting to see it work. I'm absolutely amazed at all the talent and beautiful, quality handmade items sold on Etsy. Of course I had to make a few purchases from other sellers just to see how the process works. :) It's simple, fast, fun and safe. and I bought some great items. I plan on shopping there more often too.

The weather here has finally turned gorgeous. After freezing all winter, all I want to do is throw open the windows and let the fresh air and warmth in. Some say it's too hot, not me. I'm astounded to hear all the air conditioners humming away after everyone just complained for the last 6 months about how cold they were.

The yellow-jackets were showing up at our house again and we found an underground beehive in my flower garden. I hated to do it, but we had to call the bee exterminator to spray the house. I'm allergic too bees and was afraid to sit outside when I saw them come buzzing around me. I wish they could just go live somewhere else, then they could visit my flowers all they wanted. I don't mind sharing my flowers with the bees, just not living quarters. Wish they could understand me when I talk to them.

Here's my Sunday morning blog-hopping spots: (some of these are in my favorite reads list - I've just highlighted them today since I stopped in for a visit)

Friday, June 06, 2008

It's a wonderful day! I've got the day off and it's going to be sunny and warm. We're planning on getting the bikes out for the first time this year. Hope my legs can take it. I haven't been doing any exercising - no walking, running or strength training. it's pitiful!

Anyway, I started my morning off blogging here on the patio.

This is the viewI have from where I sit.

Look close and be very quiet and we can watch the birdies stop by for a morning beverage with me.

The shoppe where I sell my jewelry at has asked for a supply of Red, White and Blue (4th of July) jewelry so I've got to hop to it and get busy. Still working on Etsy, I've got a few things listed already. Once I've got enough pieces to make a good showing, I'll display it here too.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

hurray, we've made it to summer. almost. Yesteray was so pretty outside, I couldn't stay in the house. I got my gardens finished -

flowers,herbsand veggies.I even washed the inside windows of my car just to stay outside a bit longer.

I'm still working on my Etsy site and struggling with photographing my jewelry. The pictures end up looking so much darker by the time I get them uploaded. I even built a light box to get rid of the shadows created using indoor lighting. I may have to take a class on photographing jewelry !!

I can't wait to go see Sex in the City. I don't watch much TV so I didn't watch the series - don't even know if I could get it. Is it on HBO or something? But it looks like a fun chic-flic. So far, the reviews I've heard are good ones!

It's amazing how quiet it is in blogland right now. Everyone must be moving to the outdoors. I know I blog a lot less during the summer, guess others do too.